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Gold Metallic Boucle Dress

Don we now our gay apparel! Some fabrics are meant to be worn at night, and I believe this shimmery metallic boucle from Mood Fabrics is certainly one of them:

Editor’s note: Lots of boucle options are available at MoodFabrics.com. I bought the fabric at the NYC store in November 2012, and admired it at home for over a year while waiting for a vision to appear. Perhaps, a coat, a suit, or another French jacket……

And then – it came upon a midnight clear

After nearly three weeks of no sewing I was eager to make something festive and chose the classic Butterick 5588 pattern as my base.

Since the fabric is relatively heavy I wanted to avoid bulky darts as well as fullness and believed the princess seams would compliment the fabric. I completed a full muslin in View B before cutting the shoulders off of the front, gradually angling to the underarm.

I used the lower edge of the side back as my guide and cut straight across the back.

After tweaking the fit until the dress was tight enough to wear strapless, I added 1 ¼” straps to increase the comfort level.

Would you believe I looked for a complimentary trim for over a year?

Nothing seemed to pop to my novice eye, but last week while browsing through the winter wonderland of festive clothes at Nordstrom, I noticed the Alice + Oliva “Boxman” jacket seen below…

… and realized I had my own trim waiting at home.

Pulling the neutral-color threads from a 1 ¾” strip of fabric resulted in a metallic fringe. After the dress was completed, I attached the fringe by hand around the top of the bodice. I was tempted to add it to the straps and around the bottom, but thankfully good judgment prevailed.